Sunders did not further investigate the caves because they would be leaving the Overwatch Base tomorrow. He trusted Angor’s words and believed that Angor was indeed not causing trouble intentionally.
Later, he took Angor into the Gravity Garden and found the giant corpse of the monster snake. Even though it was Sunders who killed it, he meant to allow Angor to take a body part or two as a consolation prize.
Angor pointed to a giant cut under which a pool of blood gathered. “Is this blood useful in any manner?”
“It contains a portion of the monster’s energy, but I highly doubted it can provide you with much use. Maybe you can make some enchanted ink out of it, that’s about it.”
Angor shook his head in disappointment. This meant he couldn’t use the blood to feed Soft Larvae.
In the end, he randomly picked a patch of scaled snake skin and picked off a large fang brimming with freezing energy. Sunders suggested that he could make armor and a weapon out of them.
Next, Angor told Sunders about Akeso’s blood. According to Kanter, the vitalizing energy inside the blood meant it could be one of the best healing items in the world, as long as they knew how to mitigate the side-effects that might be lethal if one directly consumed the blood. He brought this matter up so that Sunders could tell him whether Jon could use it to recover.
“... I can’t tell you without seeing Jon in person. However, from what you have told me, giving him a healing effect might be counterproductive. In this case, the blood of a wizard-level monster could kill him fast.”
When they were done with talking, Angor planned to head away and check on Toby’s condition. Before leaving Sunders’ study, he took out a water bottle from his bracelet and placed it on a desk nearby.
“This is for you, sir.”
Without waiting for Sunders’ response, he left through the door.
Sunders grinned while taking the bottle. “Good. He knows how to send gifts to his elder now? Wait a minute...”
His smile disappeared upon seeing three silver-colored shrimps shuddering in the confined container.
“Why would he—”
...
Angor suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.
“The professor won’t hate the present, right? Silver Stripes are supposed to help gentlemen with that kind of business.”
He returned to his room and placed Toby onto a miniature bed. He didn’t have time to do a thorough examination for Toby when escaping. Now he wanted to get to it.
Again, he found nothing worth his attention. It appeared Toby was just too exhausted.
As for what exactly happened in the depth of the Shaded Cave, he had to wait for Toby to wake up and ask.
...
The next morning, the loud sound of a summoning horn echoed across the curtain of snow and wind, forcing all the apprentices to step out of their rooms with the look of anxiety. Most of them had been taking it easy in the base. Now that they were asked to join another journey, they weren’t sure what to expect.
“Time to go,” Sunders spoke through Angor’s door.
Angor saw Toby still sleeping. He had no choice but to take Toby in his pocket as was.
Sensing the familiar warmth in Angor’s pocket, Toby moaned and found a more comfortable posture.
Together with all the other complaining apprentices, they followed the sound of the horn and bade farewell to the small apartment in which they spent a few days.
Angor thought they were going to ride Dokibell again, which did not happen. It was Samantha who found a small-sized Frozen Wing and asked everyone to get on. Not everyone had to use the vehicle because it was not big enough. In the end, the Frozen Wing took the union guards and apprentices, while wizards from other organizations would use their own means of transportation.
Without being asked, Angor took out Gondola and invited Sunders on board.
Kanter saw the boat and also joined them, which Angor gladly agreed.
Since it was still not the time for departure, Angor looked around the gathering group to look for Madelyne. Madelyne helped him greatly on their way here, so he wanted to take her on Gondola as well.
But he failed to find her.
For some reason, Sunders glared at him and refused to answer his concern. It was Kanter who explained with a smile, “Madelyne left by herself, ahead of us.”
From Kanter, Angor learned the grudge between Madelyne and Dura, as well as how the appearance of a Pilgrim of Misfortune actually granted Madelyne an opportunity to deal with Dura.
Then he took out another shrimp bottle and handed it to Kanter as a thank-you gift. Kanter had been rather considerate during his stay, so it was only right to return the courtesy.
Kanter checked the content of the bottle with an embarrassed look. “This—ahem! I don’t think I need this, my boy.”
Sunders commented from nearby, “Good choice. I think this is indeed a better gift for Kanter.”
Hearing Sunders’ almost sarcastic way of speaking, Angor wondered if giving people Silver Stripes was actually a bad idea. That would explain why his professor looked so glum since last night.
Though he didn’t know how to explain his intention without knowing what exactly was going on.
He had a hunch that the wizards were displeased because accepting the “aphrodisiac shrimp” meant admitting their disability. Yet it was too late to take back his decision now.
The awkwardness lasted until the union announced the start of their journey. Slowly, the Frozen Wing levitated from the ground and began floating away from the sturdy fortification that kept everyone safe from harm for a long time.
Seeing yet another majestic creation to be left abandoned, Angor suddenly felt sad. Though such things were expected in the Abyss Plane.
Their next destination was “Port Kodo”, which was built along a place called Spiral Water. From their current position, they needed to head west and move along the Lightless Mountain. Usually, following the river at the Shaded Dunes could take them there faster. But they couldn’t use that route this time because scouts reported seeing more demons than usual gathering downstream.
Nevertheless, the choice of routes had little to do with Sunders and Angor because they weren’t going to Port Kodo. As planned, they would leave the group midway and pick a course that would take them back to Brute Cavern.
The Frozen Wing was slightly overmanned and couldn’t go at full speed. The guards estimated that they needed half a day to move out of the Prominent Forest and enter the mountain range.
The trip was unsurprisingly rough. Groups of monsters kept bothering them in the forest. They even encountered a team of demon priests from a nearby Demon Monastery who managed to put a deadly curse on some of the apprentices, many of whom met a painful death.
It was almost the next morning when they finally saw the elevated landscape of Lightless Mountain up ahead.
“And this is supposed to be the safer path...” Kanter moaned.
“There is no ‘safer path’ in the Abyss,” said Sunders, “especially at a time like this.”
Angor wasn’t paying attention to the conversation because he was anxious about another matter right now. It wasn’t the monster attacks, but Toby.
Toby was still sleeping, which meant the bird had been like this for over 48 hours. Angor didn’t believe Toby needed so much sleep due to common fatigue.
When the demon priests came earlier, one of them saw a chance when both Sunders and Kanter were busy and aimed a sharp claw right at Angor’s chest pocket where Toby was sleeping. Angor managed to evade the attack by ejecting his soul and dragging his body away using gravity power.
He decided to wake Toby up so that they could work together in preventing getting caught off guard again. However, Toby wouldn’t respond no matter how he tried.